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Moto Goldmines Ltd. (MGL.T) Monday said it would start negotiations with Randgold Resources Ltd. (GOLD) after determining the FTSE100 miner's takeover bid is "potentially superior" to an earlier offer.

Randgold Thursday said it had teamed up with AngloGold Ashanti Ltd. (AU) in a cash and shares bid for Moto which values the exploration outfit at about 546 million Canadian dollars ($488 million), outpacing an all-share offer from Red Back Mining Inc. (RBI.T) valued at about C$513 million.

"Moto will now commence negotiations with Randgold concerning its offer," Moto said Monday in a statement.

Randgold Chief Executive Mark Bristow Sunday said it would be "suicidal" for Moto to outright reject his offer.

"We trumped their bid on Thursday - their deal - and then we went in on a joint-venture with AngloGold Ashanti, so collectively you've got the two [of the] biggest gold producers in Africa and we got the DRC government support and we locked up 36% of the Moto shareholders which the other party failed to get," Bristow told Dow Jones Newswires in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Bristow said the deal, if successful, would take Randgold into "the big league."

"We're now at the top of the tier two companies, but that would really propel us into the big league with Gold Fields and Anglo," he said, referring to Africa's two biggest gold producers AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields Ltd (GFI).

Perth, Australia-based Moto in June backed Red Back's offer and agreed to pay a break fee of C$15.25 million to the Canadian company in certain circumstances, and has granted Red Back the right to match competing offers.

Red Back, a Toronto-listed, Africa-focused mining firm, wasn't immediately available to comment.

Randgold is incorporated in the Channel Islands and has operations in west Africa.

At 1408 GMT, Moto's Toronto-listed shares were up 2 cents, or 0.4%, at C$5.28 and Red Back's shares were up 27 cents, or 2.6%, at C$10.52.

In London at 1426 GMT, Randgold was up 141 pence, or 3.7% at 4002 pence in a broadly stronger mining sector.

-By Jeffrey Sparshott and John James, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 9347; jeffrey.sparshott@dowjones.com